The Golden State Warriors get an opportunity to tip off 2024 by doing something they have never done before — beat Paolo Banchero — when they host the Orlando Magic on Tuesday night in San Francisco.
Banchero lived up to the billing of having been the No. 1 pick in the draft last season by torching the Warriors for 22 points in a 130-129 home win in November 2022, then putting up 25 points in a 115-101 triumph at Golden State two months later.
Coming off his Rookie of the Year season, the 21-year-old has scored 20 or more points 19 times already this season, including five times in his past six games. In the only game he failed to reach 20 in that span, against the Philadelphia 76ers last Wednesday, he finished with 19.
In two games since, he went for 29 points in a home win over the New York Knicks, then 28 when the Magic opened a tough four-game Western swing with a 112-107 loss at Phoenix on New Year’s Eve.
Something the Warriors did not see last season was big man Goga Bitadze in the Orlando starting lineup. He was signed by the Magic off the scrap heap in February, after having opened the 2022-23 season with the Indiana Pacers, who never summoned him from the bench in two meetings with Golden State.
Bitadze has started 22 games for the Magic this season, including the past two after coming off the bench in four straight. He contributed 13 points, seven rebounds and two blocks to Friday’s win over the Knicks, but posted just six points, seven rebounds and one block in the loss at Phoenix.
Orlando coach Jamahl Mosley hasn’t committed to starting Bitadze against the Warriors. Mosley’s other part-time starter, Wendell Carter Jr., just returned from a knee issue to put up 17 points off the bench against the Suns.
Mosley acknowledged he doesn’t waste much time worrying about who starts and who doesn’t.
“The great part about this unit and this group,” he said, “is that we’re going to find the right thing and the right chemistry at the right time whatever game we play.”
Warriors coach Steve Kerr also reworked his starting group for Saturday’s 132-122 home loss to the Dallas Mavericks, promoting Chris Paul and Trayce Jackson-Davis, while demoting Brandin Podziemski and Kevon Looney.
Paul responded with 24 points and Jackson-Davis had 17, but the Warriors couldn’t overcome a poor defensive effort and subpar shooting nights from holdover starters Stephen Curry (9-for-25) and Klay Thompson (1-for-11).
Kerr noted after the loss that he was looking for more than just a fresh look with his lineup changes.
“I love the guys on this team. We have a really good group. … They have a good chemistry. They get along well,” he assessed. “But we haven’t found that grit that every good team needs, where you pull together and you play for the group. We’re not there, and that’s a problem.
“Until this team really connects in a way that is solely dedicated to winning each and every game, then we’re going to be stuck in this place. So we need to get there.”
The Warriors have lost three in a row, including the first two of a seven-game homestand.
–Field Level Media